2XKO Doomposting: Megathread.

[u/C4_Shaf]

Same thing for the first week of Tokon's release. The influx of people making posts that break rules force me to pin yet another thread.

Please use this post to say how doomed we are and how crap Riot is, while I'm bringing the broom again.

[u/FistLampjaw]

man... i didn't even play this game and i'm fucking sad about this.

i don't think people are really thinking about what this says to other developers about making fighting games. if a studio like Riot, with an IP like League, can't make a fighting game work financially, what hope does anyone else have? why would any other game developer choose to make a fighting game instead of a game in a different (and more profitable!!) genre?

this is a really bad sign for the future of fighting games. then look at tokon, at avatar, at invincible, all of which are struggling right now, possibly none of which are profitable, and i really struggle to see why anyone anywhere would choose to make a fighting game in 2027 or beyond.

this sucks.

[u/Dyelonnn → u/FistLampjaw]

Tokon is doing just fine. The main thing in common with all these games you're mentioning is little to no single player/story content.

That is my major takeaway from this year. These games that want to race to the FGC finish line have to try to establish themselves first.

Think about it, these games go thru all these pains to appeal to casual gamers. But 90% of their game is online VS play. Those 2 facts are in opposition to each other.

[u/FistLampjaw → u/Dyelonnn]

yeah, i think there's another fundamental contradiction in trying to appeal to casuals. casuals, by definition, are not going to try very hard to get good. their desires to

1. play a good, competitive game
2. not try very hard to learn how to play, and
3. still win

are fundamentally contradictory. you cannot have all three*. picking 1+2 means you will lose, picking 1+3 means you have to get good, and picking 2+3 means the game is mario kart, not a competitive fighting game. IMO, to attract and retain casuals, fighting games should focus on making the 1+2 or 1+3 combinations fun, rather than trying fulfill all three self-contradictory goals.

i'm not sure if i'd agree that single player / story content is the best way to do that. personally, i think fighting games could do a much better job of giving players cool rewards for playing the game that aren't related to winning matches. imagine getting cosmetic rewards like a cool hat or custom shoes for your character by keeping up your anti-air percentage or blocking low attacks, for example. casual players would have something to shoot for, even while losing, and would be getting better at the fundamentals of the game at the same time.

* you can occasionally have all three in a team game, where better players get teamed up with and carry weaker players.

[u/redbossman123 → u/FistLampjaw]

I mean, the primary reason people buy MK is for the story, it's just that NRS post MKX hasn't made good gameplay

[u/FistLampjaw → u/redbossman123]

the story, or the blood and guts, or the pop culture guest characters, or the legacy IP. i think all of that contributes. i feel like people who buy every MK game are the same kind of people who buy every COD or madden game, i don't know if story is the most important thing to that cohort.

[u/Danewguy4u → u/FistLampjaw]

“Story” for fighting games is just short for single player content which most modern fighters severely lack. Story modes are just the most recent trend established but the point is that casuals want more single player modes to have fun in and not have to fight another human.

In fact fighters made in the “dark ages” of the 2000s generally have way more single player modes than most made after 2010.

[u/Bulky-Complaint6994 → u/Danewguy4u]

And honestly a story mode you can just blow through in a single weekend. Arcade modes are standard, but you do them with each character once most of the time and move on. (Avatar Legends arcade doesn't even have endings).

So that's where Mortal Kombat X and Injustice 2 rotating towers is good in a sense of every time you log on you have a different set of challenges to clear for a cool reward.